49

The Six Swans

A KING ONCE WENT HUNTING in a large forest and pursued a stag so furiously that none of his men could keep up with him.

Toward nightfall, he stopped and looked around, and saw that he was lost. He searched for a way out of the forest but found none. Then he saw an old woman and her head wagged from side to side as she came toward him; she was a witch.

“Good woman,” he said to her,“can you show me the way out of this forest?”

“Yes, indeed, Your Highness,” she replied,“that I can, but on one condition, and if you don’t meet it you’ll never get out of the forest and you’ll die of hunger.”

“What is the condition?” the king asked.

“I have a daughter,” said the old woman,“who is so beautiful you won’t find her equal in the whole world. She is worthy to be your wife, and if you make her your queen I’ll show you the way out of the forest.”

In fear and dread the king consented, and the old woman led him to her hut. Her daughter, who was sitting by the fire, welcomed the king as if she had been expecting him. He saw that she was indeed very beautiful, but he didn’t like her and he couldn’t look at her without a secret shudder. When he picked the girl up and put her in front of him on his horse, the old woman showed him the way. He returned to his royal palace and the wedding was celebrated.

The king had been married once before and had seven children by his first wife, six boys and a girl, whom he loved more than anything in the world. Fearing that their stepmother might mistreat or even harm them, he took them to a solitary castle deep in the forest. It was so well hidden and the way was so hard to find that he himself couldn’t have found it if a wise woman hadn’t given him a ball of magic yarn. When he tossed the ball before him, the yarn unwound itself and showed him the way.

The king went out so often to see his beloved children that the queen noticed his absence. She was curious and wondered what he did out there in the forest all alone. She gave his servants a lot of money and they told her the secret. They also told her about the ball of yarn, which alone could show the way, and she had no peace until she had found out where the king kept it. Then she made little white silk shirts, and sewed a magic spell into them, for she had learned witchcraft from her mother.

One day when the king had gone hunting she took the little shirts and went out into the forest, and the ball of yarn showed her the way. When the children saw someone coming in the distance, they thought it was their father and ran happily to meet him. She threw a shirt over each of them, and the moment the shirts touched them they turned into swans and flew away over the trees. The queen went home delighted, thinking she was rid of her stepchildren, but the king’s daughter hadn’t run out with her brothers, and the queen didn’t know she existed.

Next day the king went to see his children, but he found only the girl.

“Where are your brothers?” he asked.

“Oh, father dear,” she said,“they’ve gone away and left me all alone.”

And she told him how she had stood at her window and seen her brothers turn into swans and fly away over the trees, and she showed him the feathers which they had dropped in the courtyard and which she had picked up.

The king grieved but he didn’t think the queen had done this wicked thing and, fearing the girl would also be stolen from him, he decided to take her home with him. But she was afraid of her stepmother and asked him to let her spend one last night in the castle.

The poor girl thought to herself:“I can’t stay here any longer; I must go and look for my brothers.”

When night came, she slipped away and went straight into the forest. She walked all night and the next day as well, until she was too tired to go on. Then she caught sight of a hut and when she opened the door she saw a room with six little beds in it. She didn’t dare lie down on any of the beds, but crawled under one of them, stretched out on the hard ground and thought she’d spend the night there.

But just before sundown she heard a flapping of wings and saw six swans come flying in the window. They settled on the ground and blew at each other and blew off all their feathers, and their swan skins came off like shirts. The girl looked at them and recognized her brothers. She was overjoyed to see them and crawled out from under the bed.

The brothers were just as happy to see their little sister, but their joy was short-lived.

“You can’t stay here,” they said,“this is a robbers’ den. If they come home and find you, they’ll murder you.”

“Can’t you protect me?” she asked.

“No,” they said,“because we can only take our swan skins off for a quarter of an hour every evening, and then we’re turned back into swans.”

The sister wept and said:“But can’t you be set free?”

“Oh no,” they said,“there is a way, but it’s too hard. You’d have to go without speaking or laughing for six years, and during that time you’d have to sew us six little shirts out of starflowers. If a single word crossed your lips, all your pains would be wasted.”

When the brothers had finished speaking, the quarter of an hour was over. They were turned back into swans and flew out of the window.

The girl decided to set her brothers free, even if it cost her her life. She left the hut, went out into the middle of the forest, climbed a tree and spent the night there. Next morning she climbed down, gathered starflowers and began to sew. There was no one to talk to and she was in no mood for laughing; she just sat there, attending to her work.

One day, after she had been there a long time, the king of the country went hunting in the forest and his huntsmen came to the tree where she was sitting.

They called out to her and said:“Who are you?”

But she didn’t answer.

“Come down,” they said,“we won’t hurt you.”

But she only shook her head. When they kept pressing her with questions, she tossed down her gold necklace, thinking that would satisfy them. When they persisted, she threw down her girdle, and when that did no good her garters and little by little everything she was wearing, until she had nothing on but her shift. But the hunters refused to be put off; they climbed up, carried her down and took her to the king.

The king asked her:“Who are you? What were you doing in that tree?”

But she didn’t answer. And though he asked her in all the languages he knew, she remained as silent as a fish. But she was so beautiful that the king’s heart was moved, and he was filled with a great love for her. He threw his cloak over her, picked her up on his horse and carried her to his palace. There he had her dressed in rich garments and her beauty was as radiant as the day, but not a single word could be coaxed out of her. He seated her next to him at the table, and her gentle, demure ways were so much to his liking that he said:“This is the girl I want for my wife and none other in all the world;” and a few days later they were married.

But the king had a wicked mother, who was displeased at this marriage and spoke ill of the young queen.

“This slut who can’t talk!” she said,“who knows where she comes from? She’s not worthy of a king.”

And a year later when the queen brought her first child into the world, the old woman took it away and daubed the queen’s mouth with blood as she slept. Then she went to the king and accused the queen of eating her baby. The king refused to believe it and wouldn’t let anyone harm her. As for the queen, she spent her days over her sewing and paid no attention to anything else.

Her second child was a handsome boy and the wicked mother-in-law practiced the same deception, but the king couldn’t bring himself to believe her.

“She is much too good and pious to do such a thing,” he said,“if she could speak and defend herself, her innocence would be plain.”

But when the old woman stole the newborn child for the third time and accused the queen and the queen didn’t say a single word in self-defense, the king couldn’t help himself. He had to let justice take its course, and the judges sentenced her to death by fire.

When the day came for the sentence to be carried out, it was also the last day of the six years during which she could neither speak nor laugh, and she had set her dear brothers free from the magic spell. The six shirts were finished, except for one that still lacked its left sleeve. When she was led to the stake, she carried the shirts over her arm.

As she stood there and they were just coming to light the fire, she looked up and saw six swans come flying through the air. She knew she would soon be saved and her heart swelled for joy. The swans flew down and came so close that she was able to throw their shirts over them. The moment the shirts touched them their swan skins fell off, and there stood her brothers, strong and handsome. Only the youngest lacked his left arm and had a swan’s wing in place of it.

They hugged and kissed, and the queen went to the king, who was utterly bewildered.

She opened her mouth and said:“Dearest husband, now I can speak and tell you that I am innocent and falsely accused.”

Then she told him about the old woman’s deception, and how she had taken away her three children and hidden them. To the king’s great joy the three children were produced and for her punishment the wicked mother-in-law was tied to the stake and burned to ashes. And the king and the queen and her six brothers lived for many years in peace and happiness.